For those who do not know about Cheng Ho, also known as Zheng He, it was believed that he explored the western coast of the America's fifty years before Columbus. If interested a very good article can be found at this site:

Eunuch Columbus

by Steve Sailer

National Post (of Canada), 10/12/99

Steve Sailer (www.eSailer.com) is president of the Human Biodiversity Institute.

In one of my books somewhere, there's a brief bio of the Eunuch Admiral. I'll have to see if I can find it.

:p

Zheng He was certainly one of the most remarkable people of history, but this is the first that I have ever heard of any voyage to the Americas by his fleet. Zheng He was the son of a Moslem official in a small state in what is now Yunnan Province in China. The father was a haji, one who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and his son was, even as a small boy, well-educated in preparation for a later career in government.

When the area was conquered by the armies of Emperor Hongwu (the founder of the Ming Dynasty), a great number of the adult males of the area were executed, including Zheng He’s father. Hundreds of small boys, including Zheng He, were castrated and sent to work in the capital. (This was standard Chinese practice for at least 2000 years - kill the conquered adult males and castrate all the boys. The girls were then married off to the conquering troops.)

Zheng He’s intelligence and early education (he was captured and castrated at age 10 or 11) allowed him to rise in the palace heirarchy and under Yongle, the third Ming emperor, he led several naval expeditions to explore Southeast Asia and the shores of the Indian Ocean. His first expedition, setting off in 1405 had 63 ships carrying 27,870 men. The smallest of the ships was larger than any of those which Columbus used to cross the Atlantic.

The seven expeditions explored much of what is now Indonesia and traveled well down the east coast of Africa. Zheng He took zebras and at least one giraffe (among many other exotic items) back to China. The last voyage (1431 - 1433) went as far as Jeddah in the Red Sea and some of the Moslems among the sailors traveled on to visit Mecca before returning to China.

No further large explorations were conducted after Zheng He’s seventh voyage. The imperial court decided that it was more economically efficient for Chinese traders to use small vessals to trade in Southeast Asia with Arab and Indian traders who plied the Indian Ocean.

While there have been claims made that Chinese traders made it across the Pacific before Magellan, there is no clear evidence that they ever did. Certainly Japanese fishermen got caught in the currents and drifted across, but there is no evidence that any of them ever returned to Japan. The current flows the wrong way, and it would have required a southerly return and the use of large sails. (Vancouver’s expedition found Japanese slaves among the Northwest Coast Indians!)

In my collection of children’s books, I have a “politically correct” story of Zheng He. The book is designed for elementary school classrooms to teach cultural diversity. That Zheng He was a eunuch is, of course, never mentioned and he is drawn as very masculine and with a heavy beard. So much for historical accuracy in children’s literature….

Thank you J. I was really hoping to find out more information about him. Perhaps he only knew about the "New World" , but never traveled there.

JesusA (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2002 9:31 pm Hundreds of small boys, including Zheng He, were castrated and sent to work in the capital.

In my collection of children’s books, I have a “politically correct” story of Zheng He. The book is designed for elementary school classrooms to teach cultural diversity. That Zheng He was a eunuch is, of course, never mentioned and he is drawn as very masculine and with a heavy beard. So much for historical accuracy in children’s literature….

If he was castrated before puberty, not only would he be lacking a beard, his arms and legs would be abnormally long.

Andrew,

A eunuch castrated before puberty, as Zheng He was, would certainly have no beard and would not have the masculine appearance that the children’s book shows. I’m less certain about the long limbs. The great tomb of Qin Shihuangdi in Xian, with its thousands of life-size statues of warriors and horses, also has life-size statues of other members of the court. I have seen only ONE photo of a statue of one of the court eunuchs, though I would guess that there are hundreds more in the tomb. The single statue, while beardless, did not have arms or legs longer than normal.

Certainly the case of Black eunuchs in the Middle East who were castrated before puberty demonstrates the longer limbs. The White eunuchs of the Middle East and the castrati of Italy also demonstrate it. Is there any difference among Mongoloids? I, personally, doubt it, but have no firm evidence to go by. The photos which I have seen of Chinese eunuchs in the twentieth century are all of young ones who have not yet attained their full height or are of only the upper torso and head without arms or legs showing. Do you have any solid evidence to work from?

Jesus

See this URL for more on Zheng He (plus a picture of coin issued in his honor -without beard): www.chinapage.com/chengho.html

Just a filler to move this thread up closer to the new one on the same topic.No need to re-enter the same historical information.

There is a very nice 20 page Alternative History/Science Fiction story about Admiral Zheng He’s “discovery of America” in _What_If_2_, edited by Robert Cowley (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001). The story is titled The Chinese Discovery of the New World, and is by Theodore F. Cook, Jr., a noted historian of China. Well written and fun to read.

There are accurate comparisons of Zheng He’s þeet to that of Columbus and some interesting specualtion about possible European/Christian reaction had the Chinese actually entered the Atlantic and repulsed the Portuguese exploration/colonization of the African coast.